While battery life is one aspect that forces mobile devices to adopt less powerful CPUs, another major issue is that fan-based coolers are too bulky to be useful, but passive coolers/heat spreaders are only able to suck up a little bit of excess heat.

General Electric Comp. believes it's come up to a novel solution to the competition between cooling, power, and form factor, unveiling a cooler based on jet-engine technology that both is compact and uses precious little power.

The new technology is titled Dual Piezoelectric Cooling Jets (DCJ) and appears to be a more advanced version of the aforementioned solid-state fans, employing "micro-fluidic bellows that provide high-velocity jets of air to cool electronic components."

GE claims the new device is simple to manufacture, and has no moving parts, making it less failure prone than traditional fans. It's a mere 4 millimeters tall — 50 percent slimmer than traditional fans — and consumes less than half the power of a traditional fan with comparable airflow.

The new solid-state cooler sounds intriguing, but it remains to be seen if OEMs will bite. GE thinks they will and is pushing forward with commercialization, shopping the technology around to OEMs for use in 2013 or 2014 devices.

Though the new Google Maps app doesn’t offer deep iOS integration like Apple's Maps app does, but it also won't leave you stranded in the Australian outback to be ravaged by rabid dingos.

The new Google Maps app for the iPhone features a much more minimal interface than its predecessor. You just tap the box to search; swipe up for info or street view; tap the menu button in the bottom-right corner to toggle traffic, public transit and satellite view options; and tap the car icon at the bottom of the screen after a search for directions or to begin turn-by-turn navigation. Also, Google's new maps app includes voice-guided navigation.